World Food Crisis
ForeignPolicy.com posted an interesting article on food aid and nutrition– particularly food aid in disaster regions– that I think is worth a read. The article’s title is “Let them eat Plumpy’Nut”, a reference to the nutritious, ready-to-use food for treating malnourished children, but the larger argument is one of striking a balance between providing food aid in the most expedient manner possible, and providing food aid that is most nutritious and capable of addressing child nutrition.
Some excerpts below, full piece here:
The problem for many critics of food aid is not the delivery method, though, but the food itself, which critics say is failing to address childhood malnutrition. Last year, MSF convened a seminar at Columbia University to discuss the problem. As Susan Shepherd, nutrition advisor for MSF’s Access to Essential Medicines Campaign, put it, “It is unacceptable that current food aid is not providing adequate, nutrient-rich food for the most vulnerable children.” MSF called for an expansion of malnutrition treatment with milk-based, fortified, and energy-dense therapeutic foods, including Plumpy’nut.
Action Against Hunger (AAH) has sometimes teamed with MSF to campaign for more nutritious food, including Plumpy’nut. “There is nothing inherently wrong with the standard corn-soy blend as long as it is enriched with micronutrients and vitamins, which isn’t always the case,” AAH’s senior nutrition advisor, Marie-Sophie Whitney, says. “We shouldn’t be feeding kids anything we wouldn’t feed our own children.”
There’s also the extremely sensitive issue of where the food for aid comes from — and what its effect may be on local trade. AAH charges that U.S. government food aid displaces local farmers by dumping cheap U.S. surplus grain. “Most countries have functioning markets and regional surpluses that go overlooked in the food aid equation,” Whitney says.
Last week, the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa hosted a panel discussion on their recently released recommendations for the new U.S. Government Food Security Initiative. In the Partnership’s latest policy brief, “From Commitment to Action: A Demand-Driven Approach to Improving Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa,” the Partnership recommends a demand-driven, African-owned framework in which to provide foreign assistance funding and programming to increase agricultural productivity.
The panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Julie Howard, Executive Director of the Partnership, included Emmy Simmons, former USAID Assistant Administration for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, Frank Young, Vice-President, International Development, Abt Associates, Mary Chambliss, Former Deputy Administrator at USDA, and Abdoulaye Diop, Ambassador of Mali to the United States.
The Partnership’s report advocates for five actions as the Food Security Initiative is designed:
- Promote country-led development, ensuring that U.S. support aligns with country-led initiatives.
- Maximize flexibility and transferability of funds with the creation of a “Food Security Fund,” a single-Congressionally-mandated fund that would offer a more simplified and flexible mechanism for food security assistance programs. Currently, there are numerous funding mechanisms each with their own rules, procedures, and implementation models. A single Food Security Fund would simplify these processes and offer assistance at a country and regional level.
- Look toward developing multi-year compacts for food security initiatives to be funded by the Food Security Fund.
- Make food security assistance available to regional organizations, not just individual countries.
- Prioritize local capacity and institution-building through the Food Security Compacts and implementing a results-oriented, learning approach.
In the robust discussion, participants stressed that the creation of the Food Security Initiative is the perfect opportunity to translate the commitment of aid into effective implementation, drawing on some of the tenants of foreign assistance reform. Panelists emphasized the importance of working in collaboration with African partners in order to ensure that these initiatives are successful. The discussion also touched on the necessity of increasing transparency and coordination between U.S-led initiatives. The sheer number of organizations and initiatives on the ground in developing countries, coupled with the lack of coordination among them, makes it difficult for recipient countries to implement strategies successfully. With emphasis on food security coming from the administration, the G8, and developing-country governments, it will be exciting to see how the U.S. Food Security Initiative takes shape.
Check out the full policy brief here.
-Pooja Gupta
Many of you are following news reports of a hijacking that recently occurred aboard the Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia. Today comes word that some of the cargo aboard the ship is life-saving food aid en route to Catholic Relief Services programs in Rwanda. According to CRS, this consists of 49 containers holding “860 metric tons of bulgur wheat that are to be used by CRS relief workers for some of the poorest populations in Rwanda.”
Our thoughts go out to the crew aboard the Maersk Alabama in this very tense situation. We’ll bring you further developments as they occur.
-Chris Scott
Senator Casey and I recently introduced the Global Food Security Act of 2009 (S.384) to re-orient U.S. foreign assistance to focus on hunger and poverty. We very much appreciate that ONE has endorsed the bill. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently approved the bill.
Roughly one billion people today suffer from chronic hunger. World population is projected to grow from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion by 2050. Agricultural productivity will need to at least double by then, but instead it has been stagnating especially in Africa. Farmers will be hard pressed to meet growing demand given the challenges of land, water, and environmental pressures brought about by climate change, soil degradation, deforestation, and volatile fuel prices.
There is little reason for anyone to be hungry in a world in which we have the knowledge and resources to improve food availability and access. The entire world is facing difficult times in this global recession, and now more than ever we need your support to ensure that billions of people do not go hungry and will not in the future. Please contact your Senators and ask them to join us in cosponsoring the bill. If you would like to learn more about the bill and the issue, please visit the food security page of my website.
-Senator Richard G. Lugar, Indiana
Last week, I attended the Senate hearing for the Global Food Security Act (S-384) that was re-introduced in the Senate in February by Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Robert Casey (D-Penn.). The bill is being co-sponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
The bill calls for $10 billion over five years for agricultural initiatives in the developing world. In particular, the bill focuses on rural agricultural programming, research and technological innovation, and contains some funding for emergency food assistance with the option of purchasing the food locally rather than shipping it from the U.S.
It was exciting to hear ONE’s themes resound at the hearing. This palpable support is essential as the developing world is facing high food prices, coupled with the global economic turndown. The World Bank estimates that the financial crisis could push 53 million more people into poverty this year, and already 963 million people are hungry worldwide – an increase of 40 million people between 2007 and 2008.
In his opening statement, Senator Kerry cautioned that the world has a long way to go before we reach the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty. Senator Lugar outlined four primary challenges effecting agriculture and food security in the developing world – population growth, rising energy costs, water scarcity, and climate change – noting that “Despite these alarming trends, investments in agriculture have tumbled in recent decades.”
Highlights from the testimonies included former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and former head of the UN World Food Program Catherine Bertini, who co-chaired the recently released Chicago Council task force report on global hunger and poverty, praising more assistance for programs that will increase food production in developing countries – like agricultural extension, research, and training – in complement to traditional food aid. Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, a plant geneticist working with sorghum, proposed that investments in people, local institutions, and policies that all support research and technology transfer could assist a future agricultural revolution in developing countries. Senator Kerry and David Beckmann of Bread for the World also both made references to the importance of pursuing a foreign assistance reform process that would ensure that the U.S. has an effective foreign aid system. A list of witnesses and their full statements can be found here.
The Global Food Security Act is an important step towards achieving the economic opportunity and food security so urgently needed in the developing world. Increased funding for agriculture could have a significant impact on sub-Saharan Africa in particular where the sector employs approximately two-thirds of the population and accounts for, on average, one-third of GDP. Hopefully the introduction of this legislation – and the support that it has clearly garnered in the legislative, academic, and NGO communities – signals a trend that the U.S. is putting agriculture in the developing world on the agenda.
The bill could be reviewed by the Committee as soon as this week; we will keep you updated about any developments.
-Beth Adler
On Tuesday, a broad-based coalition that includes several of ONE’s partners launched A Roadmap to End Global Hunger – a comprehensive strategy for addressing global hunger through short, medium, and long-term initiatives and reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving hunger by 2015. Representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) joined the co-sponsoring NGOs* at Tuesday’s release on Capitol Hill, and new bipartisan legislation that incorporates the key points of the Roadmap to End Global Hunger is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.
The Roadmap pitches several strategies for addressing the dire situation of global hunger. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 963 million people are hungry around the world, the majority of whom live in developing countries. As the document notes, despite previous U.S. commitments to end global hunger, the number of hungry people continues to rise as global hunger is exacerbated by continued higher than average food prices and the global economic downturn. The Roadmap calls for a total of approximately $50 billion in U.S. funding for agriculture and food security initiatives over five years.
The document details the need for a faster, more efficient response to food emergencies and emphasizes the importance of flexibility in the provision of emergency food assistance, including options for buying food locally and regionally, and implementing voucher programs where food is available but families are too poor to afford it. The plan calls for donated food aid, like bags of rice or maize, as well as cash assistance that can provide timely and appropriate emergency assistance. The plan also calls for additional funding for safety-net programs – like cash-for-work and school feeding programs – to prevent the most vulnerable populations from descending further into hunger. It also stresses the importance of establishing and expanding early childhood nutrition programs.
In order to promote the development of the agricultural sector in the developing world and break the cycle of hunger and poverty, the Roadmap suggests a more than quadruple investment in market-based agriculture and market development. The suggested $1.38 billion over five years would be aimed at initiatives supporting low-income, smallholder farmers – particularly women. Considering that agriculture employs nearly two-thirds of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa, programs that assist farmers in producing more goods, and helping farmers access markets in which to sell these goods, could have a wide-spread, positive impact on household income and food security.
The Roadmap calls for the (more…)
Late last week, hundreds of ONE members called to urge Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee to ask questions about global poverty during Hillary Clinton’s Secretary of State confirmation hearing.
Some of those senators didn’t even get a chance, because Secretary-designate Clinton answered their questions before they could be asked. Her opening statement featured a long section on the two billion people worldwide living on less than $2 a day. She emphasized that the plight of the poor is “not marginal to our foreign policy but integral to accomplishing our goals.”
Opening remarks by Senator John Kerry (Massachusetts) also included a strong statement about the ongoing global hunger crisis. “The United States is uniquely situated to help the world feed itself and has the opportunities to recast its image by making the eradication of hunger a centerpiece of United States foreign policy,” he said.
In the subsequent question-and-answer period, ten out of fifteen of the Foreign Relations Committee Senators raised issues related to ONE issues, including these:
- Senator Bob Corker (Tennessee) asked about reforming and modernizing U.S. foreign aid, referring to the “maze of aid efforts that are underway” and the need for the State Department to examine and streamline these efforts.
- Senator Barbara Boxer (California) stated that “HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis — Africa, Asia, Latin America need our attention,” and went on to describe the persecution of women in the developing world.
Clinton responded with this assurance: “I want to pledge to you that as Secretary of State I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser than all of the other issues that we have to confront.”
- Senator George Voinovich (Ohio) inquired about how “smart power” — (more…)
